Wildlife: Birds, Mammals, Fish

Sea otters, brown pelicans, chinook salmon, tule elk: these are just some of the amazing species that inhabit the San Francisco Bay Area. Their charisma has inspired countless conservation efforts and have enticed everyday people and impassioned naturalists into the wild.

Marin's Marine Mammal Center is spreading its reach across the Pacific, and this summer opened a $3.2 million seal hospital in Hawaii that is the only facility in the world dedicated to treating and protecting the Hawaiian monk seal.

The Bay Area Puma Project team has been collaring mountain lions and monitoring remote motion-sensor cameras throughout the East Bay. It’s not easy tracking the elusive cats, but it’s vital to understanding how to protect them.

Looking out across the 650-acre project toward the distant Godzilla arm of the backhoe against the blue sky, I finally see on the ground what the planners and engineers have been describing to me ever since I first began writing stories about Hamilton ten years ago: a tapestry of habitats.